Wigan Athletic defender Gary Caldwell saw red in Monday nights game against Manchester City, when following a challenge for the ball match referee Stuart Attwell deemed that the Scotland international had been reckless in the extreme and produced a red card reducing the Latics to 10 men.
Now originally Attwell who is just 26, claimed to both the player and Latics boss Roberto Martinez that the red card was shown because there was a two footed lunge on Manchester City man Carlos Tevez, replays and photographs clearly show that this wasn`t the case.
Subsequently Attwell changed his reason for the red card at full time when someone had a quiet word with him, when compiling his match report he now deemed that the sending off was for the use of excessive force by the Latics man, talk about a cop out.
Due to `excessive force` being totally subjective, how on earth can you measure what force players put into any challenge and how on earth can you argue against the referees decision? The Latics have now no chance of appealing Caldwell`s suspension successfully and are condemned to losing the influential defender for three games of a very important end of season run-in.
I bumped into a Premier League referee yesterday in Tesco of all places, I am not going to name him to keep his anonymity and we spoke totally off the record but when I asked him about Attwell he said with a wry smile: ‘he`s young and young ref`s make a lot of mistakes`.
Now I have nothing against a referee making a mistake if they are big enough to admit to it not hiding behind statements like ‘excessive force` because if he is allowed to do that then he will never develop into the top referee that the FA hope he will.
So as you can gather I believe that the ref got it wrong with Caldwell, but whats your opinion?
Our latest poll is asking did Attwell get it right or wrong, why not have your say by voting in the poll and also leaving a comment below. To vote simply access the poll on the right side of this page, select your option then hit the submit button, its that easy. 
You can listen to the Latics Speyk podcasts now by clicking on the player here:
Latics Speyk Car Stickers Have Arrived
Vital Wigan are pleased to announce that the Latics Speyk car stickers have arrived anyone who wants one follow the instructions in this link
Latics and Proud
Fancy writing an article about the Latics? Why not get in touch, we are always looking for new contributors, after all we are all Latics fans here and want to get the Latics message to the world, so if you have a favourite match or Latics memory get it jotted down, or whatever you want to say put it into an email and send it to us here at Vital Wigan
To get your article published just click here and we will put it onto the site
Vital Latics – Bringing you the Latics Speyk car stickers and the podcasts
It’s easy to join us at Vital Latics to register , simply click the link and enjoy getting involved
